Recently, in photographic processing of color photographic materials, shortening of the processing time is desired to bring about a shortening of the period for delivery of finished photographs and a reduction in labour in the photo-processing laboratory. As a means of shortening the processing time in the respective processing steps, elevating the processing temperature and increasing the replenisher to each step have been generally used. In addition, other various methods of strengthening stirring or adding various accelerators have heretofore been proposed.
Above all, a method of processing a color photographic material containing a silver chloride emulsion in place of a silver bromide type emulsion or silver iodide type emulsion which has hitherto widely been used is noticeable for the purpose of accelerating color development and/or reducing the amount of the replenisher. For instance, International Patent Application Laid-Open No. W087-04534 illustrates a method of rapid processing of a high silver chloride color photographic material with a color developer substantially not containing sulfite ion and benzyl alcohol.
However, the above rapid processing method was found to have some serious problems, especially in the continuous processing procedure, in that the non-colored portion (hereinafter referred to as "white background portion") in the processed color photographic material is stained (colored in the white background portion) so that it becomes dirty, and further the image portion (colored portion) is insufficiently desilvered so that the color reproducibility and the saturation are low.
As the main reasons for causing the abovementioned stains, there are mentioned the following points:
(1) The non-exposed portion is silver-developed or fogged. PA1 (2) The oxidized products (e.g., tar component, etc.) of the color developing agent and the like adhere to the photographic material being processed to cause color staining on the material. PA1 (3) After the color development step, the developing agent is carried over into the oxidation bath (bleaching bath or bleach-fixation bath) where the agent is oxidized to thereby be discriminatingly coupled with the coupler existing in the photographic material being processed to form a dye therein. This is a so-called bleaching fog. PA1 (4) Because of insufficient washing of the antiirradiation dye and sensitizing dye from the processed photographic material, the colors of the dyes still remain in the processed material. This is a so called color-retention.
Accordingly, prevention of stain in the white background portion could be attained only after the stains caused by the above-mentioned points (1) through (4) be totally improved and prevented.
On the other hand, the desilvering failure caused by high silver chloride emulsions would result from the following reasons:
That is, a silver chloride emulsion has a higher silver ion-solubility than a silver iodobromide or silver chlorobromide emulsion and, as a result, the development of a silver chloride emulsion may finish in a short period of time because of extreme acceleration of the solution physical development of the emulsion. However, the developed silver thus formed is hardly in the form of filaments, but nearly spherical and large developed silver grains having a small surface area would be formed and, as a result, the desilvering speed would be lowered.
As a means of overcoming the above-mentioned problems, methods of using an organic antifoggant are known, for example, as described in JP-A-58-95345 and JP-A-59-232342 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application"), where a high silver chloride color photographic material is processed by continuous rapid processing whereupon fluctuation of the photographic characteristic (especially anti-fogging property) of the photographic material being processed is reduced by the action of the organic antifoggant. However, it has been found that incorporation of such an organic antifoggant into the photographic material would often cause a lowering of the maximum density of the image formed in the material and would often cause desilvering failure (unsufficient desilvering) in the processing step. Accordingly, the method of using such an organic antifoggant could not be said favorable.
On the other hand, JP-A-61-70552 illustrates a method of processing a high silver chloride color photographic material by a low-replenishment system where a replenisher is added to the development bath in such an amount that the developer does not overflow from the development bath during the processing. JP-A-63-106655 illustrates a method of processing a silver halide color photographic material in which the silver halide emulsion layer has a high silver chloride content, with a color developer containing a hydroxyamine type compound and at least 2.times.10.sup.-2 mol/l of a chloride, with an object of providing a stabilized processing.
However, both of the above methods were not effective for preventing the generation of stains and were unsatisfactory for improving the desilverability of the processed materials, and thus were not satisfactory techniques.